Winter Wonderland

No words. Just breathtaking beauty everywhere I look...

Took some of these last night at midnight. Today we're going to get our tree and set it up. But none of our decorations can top Mother Natures' Winter Finery.

Snow!!!

First snowfall of the season.... Went to a local artisan craft fair...when I went in it was barely spitting snow; when I came out a couple hours later it was a winter wonderland... perfect for pictures of all the Christmas decorations I've been setting up...
This is my kitchen/mudroom door... with its urn of cut greens and the Christmas toad. Can't remember where I found him--maybe Target a few years back--but he's a christmas tradition now.

Rudolph and the vintage sled (not named Rosebud) next to the front door...

The cubeman and wee tree...plus Santa Gnome on the other side of the front door...
Remember that glorious maple tree I wrote about in the Spring/early summer? Here she is, all magickal and lacy in winter...
The yard looks so wonderful...very Currier and Ives...

I just couldn't put these two pumpkins out on the compost yet; they were still perfect...so I painted one red and the other green...voila! Christmas pumpkins...

Here is the front porch view...

Tomorrow we're going to a local tree farm to get our tree. I would love to go tonight...with the snow falling ..... but we have my hubby's company Christmas party to go to... oh well.

I'd rather be home setting up a tree and decorating it; having hot buttered rum, with Bing on the stereo and the snow falling outside. The first snowfall just brings out the romance of the season... everything is more wonderful and magickal right now.....I'm looking out my window at fairyland.

let it snow,let it snow, let it snow...

It's A Wonderful Life...

I will tell you something about me..... I married George Bailey. I really did. Not literally, of course--but if there was ever a perfect fictional persona for my husband Kevin it's George Bailey. They are two of a kind: sweet,dependable,honest,hardworking,true,romantic-in their own way,boyishly handsome, simple, wonderful small town men. Like George and Mary, Kevin and I grew up together. We met,as kids(I was 12,he was14)at my fathers' model railroad club. I had such a crush on him. Like Mary, I pined for him while he dated other girls and hardly knew I was there. We were friends long before we dated. He was the boy next door. I was the girl right under his nose.

On our first official date, we went to dinner w/ my parents on their sailboat. At the end of the evening, I fell into the river while trying to dock the boat. Kevin rescued me...and the rest was inevitable. We dated for a while, got engaged at Thanksgiving (he asked my father for my hand)and got married in a small,simple wedding the following September. It hasn't all been roses. Like George and Mary, we've had rough times.....but also like George and Mary, we have had the blessing of wonderful family and friends to see us through.

I adore this movie. I adore George and Mary and their journey and the way it speaks to my own journey. This movie has become my own myth; I know in my heart that I am living the best life I can, if I always remember the true blessings of family and friends and being able to give and relish the simple joys of life.

I could go on and on listing all the parallels I see between George and Mary and myself and Kevin. But I will just tell you that the moments that speak most truly of my husband are the moments of George Bailey as a loving father.

They say that every girl wants to find and marry a man like her own father. If that is true, Kevin is so like my dad in his love of his children and the way he has always taken the time to help them, teach them, be with them....I could completely see him being the man who 'fixes' Zhu-Zhu's flower. A real man, in my opinion.

And he is always the man whos' greatest joys are being surrounded by the happy embrace of his loving family.

This post was originally going to be about my December inspiration: It's A Wonderful Life....and, in a way, it still is. It is a wonderful life. Kevin's birthday is just round the corner: December 12. I am so grateful that he finally saw 'the girl who was right under his nose' and that I get the opportunity to grow old with this sweet 'boy next door'.

Happy Birthday Kevin....my George Bailey. Many,many more...

And this Christmas season, let's all take the time to really savour this wonderful life we've been given.

That's my December inspiration.